Based on those photos, I understand why over 100,000 people died.
Remember, the wave will have different heighth depending on the rise of the sea floor up to the land in that particular area. In some areas, entire villages of 10,000 people will have been wiped out. In others, a gentle rush of water a few feet high would have pushed inland.
That is why tsunamis are so difficult to forecast. There are so many factors that build into its destructive power in any particular area.
Those photos, however, are the last moments of many in the pictures.